Substitutiary Locomotion : Angela Lansbury Is So Great

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1954)

By the time that Murder, She Wrote came a along, Angela Lansbury had been acting for over 30 years. 59 with 46 films to her credit: National Velvet, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Long Hot Summer, The Manchurian Candidate, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Last Unicorn.

4 Tony Awards and 3 Oscars nominations. She has never won one though. Which is sad. Let's all Kickstarter to get her one.

That is a dead bird on a hat.
And she is WORKING it.

Of those Tony's the most famous win is for Mrs. Lovett in the original production of Sweeney Todd. That character helps commit insane murders and hide the evidence in meat pies that are sold to the public.

Which is all kinds of messed up. And pretty amazingly opposite what she would become more well-known for. Of course - J. B. Fletcher.

Of all the films I listed above, my go-to is Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I know. Silly town. But hear me out.

It's a musical, it's live action with animation, she's a witch, the dad from Mary Poppins plays a con artist, they fight NAZIS WITH RE-ANIMATED SUITS OF ARMOR.

You watch this 10 minutes of greatness right now:

She's got J. B. Fletcher eyes.

The film won an Oscar for the Special Effects. Those suits of armor are basically puppets. Shoes dance folks. That is old school film making. Those things happened on a set somewhere. It was nominated in the Best Song category but lost to the theme from Shaft. Which...fair enough.

Whenever I'm under the weather, I curl up on the couch and watch it. Angela Lansbury cha chas with a fish and wins a trophy for it. She has a cat named Cosmic Creepers. This movie will make you smile like only a Disney film from the 70s can.

Also. Can we all agree that she was a hot lady and is still fierce as shit? Because...I mean, look at her.